The Interactional Instinct explores the evolution of language from the theoretical view that language could have emerged without a biologically instantiated Universal Grammar. In the first part of the book, the authors speculate that a hominid group with a lexicon of about 600 words could combine these items to make larger meanings. Combinations that are successfully produced, comprehended, and learned become part of the language. Any combination that is incompatible with human mental capacities is abandoned. The authors argue for the emergence of language structure through...

The Interactional Instinct explores the evolution of language from the theoretical view that language could have emerged without a biologically instantiated Universal Grammar. In the first part of the book, the authors speculate that a hominid group with a lexicon of about 600 words could combine these items to make larger meanings. Combinations that are successfully produced, comprehended, and learned become part of the language. Any combination that is incompatible with human mental capacities is abandoned. The authors argue for the emergence of language structure through...

The Interactional Instinct (Oxford University Press, 2009) argued that the ubiquitous acquisition of language by all normal children was the result of a biologically-based drive for infants and children to attach, bond, and affiliate with conspecifics in an attempt to become like them. This instinct leads children to seek out verbal interaction with caregivers and allows them to become competent language speakers by about age 8. In Exploring the Interactional Instinct, scholars in applied linguistics expand the theory by examining interaction in second language acquisition; in...